Spiders Around a Snowman
by ApolloBlackwood
Summary: 6-years old Asougi Kazuma has to spend a day in a day-care facility and gets to know the true meaning of being a samurai ... (Inspired by DGS twitter's baby DGS discourse back in November; dedicated to Zich Lawyersonas and Rinny :3) Dai gyakuten saiban, no spoilers (AU setting)


**Spiders Around a Snowman**

~o~

"I don't want to be here." Asougi puts his head back and looks up to his mother, his lips pressed together tightly, begging her with his eyes to take him with her. "I don't want to stay."

"Asougi, it's only for today. You will see, it will be fun!" She crouches down and caresses his cheek softly with her fingers. "Karintou, the time will pass quicker than you think. It's only for today, remember it." She takes his little hands into her hands and presses her lips against his finger tips. "I love you, Asougi."

Asougi falls against her, wrapping his arms around her, and presses his face against her shoulder while she strokes his back. "You are my brave samurai, Asougi." He lets go of her, on the verge of tears but nods when she adds: "Promise you'll be strong today?" She smiles. "I will be here in the evening to fetch you."

Asougi stands at the entrance of the day-care facility, hands clenched into fists, and looks at the doors until he can't see his mother anymore.

"Asougi, come in, I want to shut the door!" One of the facility's child-minders beckons to him to enter. Her name is Midori; she has been talking to his mother earlier and seems very friendly.

Asougi checks if his belt with the sword still is tightly wrapped around his waist before following her words.

~o~

* * *

~o~

Outside, the snow is falling softly from thick gray clouds and covers the frozen ground with a thin blanket of white. The other children have gathered around the windows and press their faces flat against the glass, squealing from excitement and shouting at each other to move. Everyone wants to have a look. Some children tug at the child-minders' sleeves and beg them to be allowed outside. There's incredible noise in the air, everybody is excited.

All but one.

Asougi sits offside near the bookshelf on a cushion, staring highly concentrated into the book in his hands. It's handwritten and old, the book cover decorated with golden lines on black leather. Asougi traces the individual kanji with his pointing finger and mumbles its meaning to himself, trying to form the words into sentences. Reading still is hard even though he is practicing every day. From what he can understand though, this text is about the honor of samurais, and Asougi knows a lot about this topic.

He turns the page and studies the drawing on the side, nods and lifts a hand to his chin, thinking. With little black brushstrokes the author depicted a fighting samurai, sword raised against his foe. There are several words written next to him and Asougi tries to read on.

"We are going outside, everybody get dressed!"

Like on order all children tear themselves away from the windows and storm in union to the changing area to get dressed. They want to be the first outside in the falling snow and fight with others to gain advantage, push them to the side and fall over their own feet – it evolves into major chaos, with children crying and the adults trying to calm everybody down.

Midori actually stays behind and urges the last remaining kids on to follow. Her gaze falls upon reading Asougi, and she sighs. "Asougi, did you hear me? Get dressed as well!"

"Yes, Midori-dono, one moment." Asougi closes the book in his hands with feelings of regret and puts it back into the shelf where he took it from. He has to tip-toe to reach all the way up but he's proud he manages to do it without the help of an adult.

"Just Midori is fine, Asougi. Don't be so formal ..." Midori urges some kids on to hurry and extends a hand into the direction of one other child that's slowly closing up to her with clumsy slow steps. "Naruhodou, you want to play in the snow too, right?"

"Yes." Naruhodou wiggles his head and presses his two little hands against his cheeks, deforming his face into a weird shape.

"Then you should hurry too!" Midori claps with her hands. Naruhodou looks up, his eyes meet Asougi's and his face fills with surprise for a short moment. He trips over his own feet with his next step and falls against Midori's legs, catches himself and cautiously leans past her leg to stare at Asougi. Asougi frowns and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

_Clumsy oaf,_ he thinks. With proud posture he walks past Midori and the other child in order to get dressed as well, paying them no further attention.

~o~

* * *

~o~

It's cold outside. Asougi pulls his scarf tighter around his neck and blows his breath into cupped hands, jumping up and down. Other kids are frantically running around, screaming and throwing snowballs at each other. Where more snow has fallen on the ground children throw themselves down and make snow angels. And some just stand there with their heads back, staring up into the sky. Most have never seen snow before because snow is so rare around here.

Asougi extends a hand and watches the light feathers from above melt instantly when they land on his skin. He doesn't know what to do and would like to return to his book. The painting of the samurai haunts his thoughts.

"You there, do you want to play catch with us?" The older kids have gathered on even ground and wave at him. Asougi hesitates for a moment, then walks over and joins but he is the slowest of them and has to be the catcher for so long that he eventually tells them with burning cheeks to continue playing on their own, and leaves.

"I would have caught them all! Just my sword is in the way!" Asougi kicks the snow with a muffled scream and walks as far away as possible from the older kids.

"It's not nice of them to laugh at you."

It's _that _kid again, the one from before, standing in Asougi's way. He's fully wrapped in a warm jacket, scarf and woolly hat so that his nose and eyes are barely visible, still trembling visibly. What parts of skin Asougi can see are red from the cold's bite.

"What is it for you?", he snaps. "That's how the older kids do it! You won't be able to understand." He walks past him, both hands clenched into fists.

"But I'm six years old already!" The kid follows Asougi, waddling through the snow. Asougi notices and starts walking faster. "I'm not playing with them too. They say mean things to me."

_You are clumsy and slow and I would be mean to you too._

Asougi bares his teeth. He tries hard to not turn around and blurt his thoughts out because he's a samurai and his mother always tells him to keep good manners. He should not let his anger out on this boy. He should not.

"It's not nice to laugh at other people. Kaasan said it. They shouldn't have laughed at you because you're slower than -"

"Okay!" Asougi stops dead in his tracks and that kid, who followed close behind, bumps into him and falls over into the snow. With big eyes he stares up to Asougi, which fuels his anger even more. "I get it! Now leave me alone!"

"But why?"

"I don't want to talk to you!"

Silence settles between them like the snow onto the ground for several breaths, neither of them speaking. Asougi just glares into the brown wide eyes and waits for a reaction.

There is none.

_Is he stupid? _Asougi opens his fists and breathes out, trying to cool down. It's very unlike him to lose his composure. A samurai has an even soul, and samurais don't get angry easily.

The boy frowns, looks to the side. Asougi watches him get onto his feet, he adjusts his scarf and then widely smiles at Asougi. The smile confuses Asougi even more than this boy's previous behavior but the next words are incomprehensible to him: "We can play together instead!"

"What?"

"My name is Naruhodou." Naruhodou extends a gloved hand, face still shining happily.

"Hmph." Asougi turns away abruptly and crosses his arms in front of his chest. What's up with that boy? What is he trying to do?

"What is your name?" He comes closer and leans to the side to look into Asougi's face but Asougi turns his head away. "Can I be your friend? I don't think I saw you here yesterday. You're new, right? I know this place, I can show you around!" Naruhodou steps in front of Asougi, still trying to catch his gaze. "Why are your headbands flying behind you? What is that on your hip? Is that a sword?" He reaches out for it but Asougi reacts instinctively – he beats away Naruhodou's hand and pushes the boy back violently; his right flies to the sword's hilt protectively.

"Never touch a samurai's sword!", he yells angrily at the wide eyed boy. "A samurai's sword is a samurai's soul! You must never touch it! Never!"

"O-oh, I-I'm sorry. I didn't know that."

Big round tears start dropping down Naruhodou's face. "I-I'm so sorry, I just- I just wanted to see-" He extends his hand but Asougi beats it to the side, trembling with something other than cold, and Naruhodou presses his hands against his chest, sobbing.

"Go away from me already, okay? I don't want to be your friend, why don't you understand that!"

"What is going on here?" They didn't notice Midori approaching and suddenly she is next to them, both hands on her hips, glaring down on them. "Why is Naruhodou crying?" Worried, she sits down next to him and wipes away the tears from his red face with her sleeve.

"That's-", Asougi starts but Midori interrupts him: "Naruhodou, why are you crying, dear?" Naruhodou sniffles, keeping his gaze on Asougi over Midori's shoulder, and bites his lower lip. Asougi stomps on the ground and is ready to defend himself but to his astonishment the boy – Naruhodou – says: "I- I hurt him, Midori, and I- I'm so sorry!" He lifts his hands and presses them against his face, his shoulders shaking. "I didn't mean to!", he sobs.

Midori wraps her arms around him and presses him into a hug. "Shh, but you apologized, didn't you?" She half turns to Asougi, who dumbfounded stares at Naruhodou. "Here, Naruhodou, look, Asougi's not angry at you, dear. You don't have to cry. Asougi knows that you're sorry, yes, Asougi?"

_Why does he lie? He could tell on me and I'd be punished for hitting him._

Asougi pouts. "Yes, I'm not angry."

"Y-yes?" Naruhodou looks pitiful with the tears and snot smeared on his face. Asougi nods another time and Naruhodou's face lightens up with a shy smile.

_So he doesn't plan on snitching. I would have told Midori the truth in his place. _Asougi's finger closer tighter around his sword's grip. _Why did he keep silent? What for?_

Naruhodou takes out a handkerchief and cleans his face, while Midori straightens up, sighs and tells them that they will have to come in soon because of lunch. "And after lunch we can go outside again."

"I'm cold", Naruhodou sniffles.

~o~

* * *

~o~

Inside the day-care facility everyone is already seated and eating. The main meal is rice with vegetables in sauce together with some meat balls and green tea for a drink by the looks of it. Asougi gets his portion of the food and sits down at one of the tables, looking around the room and meeting eyes with Naruhodou, who just entered. He gets his food from Midori, who entered after him, nods several times at something she says and strolls to the free seat next to Asougi.

"Why did you not tell her the truth?", Asougi immediately asks as soon as Naruhodou is next to him.

"The truth?" Naruhodou sits down and judging by his facial expression he doesn't know what Asougi is talking about.

"I hit you." Asougi points at Naruhodou's hands while he's cutting the meat balls on his plate deep in thoughts.

"No, I …" He looks up and their eyes meet. "But you're not angry anymore?"

"I'm not." _I really am not._

"Um … can we be friends then, Asougi?" Asougi notices how tense the other boy is. He leans back in his chair, shakes his head, and answers: "Sure, why not, Naruhodou."

"Okay." Naruhodou turns to his food and starts eating quietly. Asougi waits for him to say something and eventually picks up his cutlery to eat too.

The food is terrible.

"Bueh, how can you eat this?" He lifts his gaze and notices that all the other children are eating with great appetite, and some have finished and get another plate full of this food. Asougi feels his insides bristle at the thought of continuing. "Is that food like this every day?" He turns to Naruhodou, who nods with his fork in his mouth.

"It's tasty", he mumbles.

_You call this tasty? _Asougi looks at his plate, at the vegetables and meat and rice. He looks at Naruhodou's plate that's half empty. Then he picks up his fork and starts eating. His face twists out of disgust but he forces the food down anyways.

"Do you not like it?"

"No, it's good", Asougi struggles to sound convincing but finally he eats it all up, ending up being the last kid at the table that hasn't eaten up yet.

He doesn't feel too good then, as if he has a fever, cold and hot at the same time. But he finished his plate. "I'm finished", he croaks and picks up his plate, brings it over to the sink and hands it to the child-minder. She tells him to join the others with judging undertone and Asougi follows, bend over and hands on his stomach.

In the main room he creeps to the bookshelf, picks the samurai book and leans against the wood, breathing irregularly. He opens the page he read before and looks at the drawing, focuses on the signs written around it.

_Honor. Gratitude. Justice. Self-Control. Politeness._

Asougi turns the page and inspects the next drawing, blinking several times to get those blurry lines out of his eyesight – the same samurai is surrounded by foes and fends them off with his sword, with another person behind him. Only one word is written next to it as headline.

"Protect?" Asougi puts down the book, leans his head against the shelf and breathes out. He knows about the key values of a samurai. This is the first time he hears about "protect". He must read the explanatory text to understand but ...

"We should go outside again later." Midori talks to a child-minder who is currently playing with the youngest children on the floor, constructing something out of wooden pieces. "The snow has gotten lighter and before it's dark the children can tire themselves out. I'll just tell the others."

_I'm not feeling well. _Asougi closes the book and leaves it on the floor. He gets up and starts walking in Midori's direction to tell her, unable to call out and feeling extremely dizzy but she doesn't see him because she's walking in the other direction.

"Asougi?"

"I'm …" Asougi stops, blinks at Naruhodou who stands next to him with paper and pencils, but pressure over his ears make it hard to concentrate and his eyesight is fading.

"You are white in the face. Asougi, are you not feeling well?" Naruhodou reaches out for him and Asougi's world goes black.

He is lost when he wakes up. Fear wells up in his chest and he grabs for his sword's hilt and fear turns into panic because it's missing. "Wh-where ...?!"

"Asougi, Asougi ..." Hands on his shoulders and quieting words make him remember where he is and what happened. He reaches for Midori's hands on his shoulders, still panicking, and shouts: "Where is my sword? Where have you put my sword?"

"Don't worry, dear. I put it next to you, see?" Asougi sits up with her help, his head dizzy and as if wrapped in cotton wool, and sees the familiar sheath directly at his leg. He exhales. "You must rest. I'll make tea for you and you try to relax, okay?" Midori looks genuinely worried so Asougi nods without complaint, lays back and tries to relax just as he has been told. Midori leaves and Asougi is alone for a while. He starts thinking about the word "protect" again but he possibly can't read the book right now.

"Asougi?" He turns his head to the source of voice. "Asougi, are you going to die?" Naruhodou stands at Asougi's feet with a strange facial expression, a piece of paper pressed against his chest. Asougi shakes his head.

"Who gave you such a stupid idea, Naruhodou?", he asks and puts a hand against his forehead. Really now ...

"Just … My father fell like this and then the others said he's going to die. He's in hospital."

"Naruhodou, I'm fine." Asougi sits up despite feeling dizzy, extends his hand and pats Naruhodou reassuringly on the head. Naruhodou's eyes widen. "I … my stomach just hurts a bit."

"Oh." Naruhodou puts the piece of paper he has been holding for a while now on the lounger and climbs on it, sits down next to Asougi and takes the paper into his hands again, holding it so that Asougi can't see what's drawn on it. "I haven't been in the hospital often." He wrinkels the paper a bit while saying that. "It makes me scared. And I don't like this sickroom too." He leans to Asougi and shows him the drawing because that's what the piece of paper is.

It has nothing of the grace and beauty of the painting that Asougi looked at in the leather book. It's messy and the predominant color is black, making it hard to make out the details.

"What is this?" Asougi takes the paper into his hands and thinks he can recognize a person. Naruhodou points at a black stick figure in the paper's middle.

"That's you", he says and smiles at Asougi, his whole face shining with joy while he's explaining: "I drew your sword here and that's your hairband. These are trees and that here is a snowman. Because you're here I thought you'd still like to see the snowman I have made. Because you can't go outside. And I can't bring the snowman here."

Asougi feels his throat tighten. "Those don't look like trees. They look like .. spiders. Really big spiders." He notices Naruhodou's serious face and realizes what he just said. "Oh no no! Um, give me a green pencil please!" He takes the pencil from Naruhodou and draws into the picture, adding some leafs onto the trees. "See? Now that's trees."

That's when Midori returns. Her initial surprise changes into worry, she sighs and mumbles: "I should be angry with you, Naruhodou, since you're supposed to be outside with the others but I think I can shut one eye this time." She places the tea onto the sickroom's small table and gives a cup to Asougi, taking the drawn picture from him. She looks it and smiles. "Did you draw this?"

"I helped with the trees." Asougi takes a sip from the tea that thankfully isn't that hot anymore. "Naruhodou drew the rest."

"That's really beautiful." She points at the drawn Asougi and the snowman, "what a nice idea to draw them together, Naruhodou. But hm ... Asougi, why would trees have leafs in winter?"

Asougi freezes mid-motion. His face darkens, he puts down the teacup. "I can pin it onto the art board later if you want, Naruhodou", Midori continues absentmindedly, "but now we should go outside again. Leave Asougi to rest a bit, dear." She takes Naruhodou by the hand and they leave the room and Asougi alone.

He lays down onto the lounger again but it nettles him to have to stay here after a while. He does feel a lot better than before and honestly, there is no reason to be in the sickroom.

"Yes, I will take the book and read", he says to no one, swings his legs over the lounger's edge and jumps onto the floor. He fastens his sword at his belt, walks out the sickroom into the main room and finds that the leather book is gone. It's not in the bookshelf and it's not on the floor where he left it. Asougi starts walking around and searches, and he finds paper, pencils, constructions toys and other things but not the book he's searching for.

_Protect_, he thinks grimly – and sees the book lying on the windowsill, for whatever reason. He climbs the soft staircase that lead up to the windows and reaches the book, takes it and looks through the pages until he sees the familiar drawing. It seems like someone has been reading a different chapter while Asougi was in the sickroom.

Asougi traces the first kanji next to the drawing with his index finger, finally able to concentrate, but then he hears the commotion outside and looks up.

Through the window he can see a snowman, like the one that Naruhodou drew on paper. It has a scarf wound around where a human has a throat, and sticks sticking out from the sides. Several children (the older children) stand around the snowman and do something and it takes Asougi a moment to recognize that they have Naruhodou and the snowman circled. One of the kids pulls Naruhodou's woolly hat from his head and throws it into the snow.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Asougi stands up in alert. He sees that the kid steps onto Naruhodou's hat and laughs, while Naruhodou is struggling against the taller child. Where are the adults? Where is Midori? Why do they not see what is happening? "Stop it!", Asougi beats against the window's glass.

The other kids kick the snowman and he falls over. Asougi turns around and runs out of the main room, to the changing area. His thoughts are racing – he should find and tell a child-minder what's going on. He should hurry. He has no time to lose. Naruhodou needs his help.

He's not fully dressed but already outside, fighting against the sudden cold. Wherever he turns there are only children but no adults in sight and Asougi cries out for help. One of the children turns to him and asks: "What is up with you?" and he shouts: "Where are the adults?" and the kid shrugs and turns away.

Asougi can feel panic rise in him. What should he do? Where can he find the child-minders? He turns to where he saw Naruhodou through the window and runs into that direction, sees the children pushing Naruhodou around. There is no snowman anymore. One of the kids holds Naruhodou's woolly hat high enough so that Naruhodou can't reach it, and they are all laughing at him.

"Stop it you jerks!", Asougi screams and draws his sword mid-run. It's wooden (of course it's no real sword) but when Asougi takes a swing and hits one of the kids it hurts them just as well. The kid cries out and everybody turns to Asougi, who presses into the circle, and runs to Naruhodou, who crouches in the snow, covering his head. "What is wrong with you?!", Asougi screams frantically.

"What in the world man!" One of the bullies tries to get closer and Asougi immediately threatens to hit him with the sword.

"Stay away!", he shouts, "I will beat you up! Aren't you ashamed! Everyone going at one defenseless guy! You are dirt, you jerks, you are so without honor!"

"Pah, you don't scare me. You're just a slow new kid and you think you're so great with that sword of yours." The tall kid with Naruhodou's hat approaches and wants to push Asougi, laughing, but he underestimates the hours of training Asougi put into his sword skills and he underestimates Asougi's mental state – suddenly he finds himself running, trying to cover himself from the sword hits, screaming and cursing -

"Asougi, stop right now!" An adult grabs Asougi by the wrist to stop him but it isn't necessary because Asougi stops and stares after the running bully. He turns his head and looks back at the child-minder defiantly.

"I had to protect Naruhodou and myself", he explains clearly.

But after everything is sorted out Naruhodou and he have to sit on the side of the main room and are not allowed to play or draw. They have been punished for their behavior.

"I got rightfully punished for beating them up", Asougi says, staring at the tips of his shoes. Midori was very clear about this, and she will tell his mother everything._ Mother will be disappointed,_ Asougi thinks disheartened. "But why were you punished, Naruhodou? You did not hit them."

"I'm not." Naruhodou wiggles his legs up and down, up and down. They have been sitting in silence, listening to Midori's harsh lecture together. Asougi frowns.

"What do you mean, you're not?"

Naruhodou doesn't answer for a while. He looks to the side to the other children. Then he says: "I was angry when they destroyed my snowman. I wanted to show him to you when you feel better. But I was too weak to fight them. And then you came and helped me even though nobody else wanted to help me. So I think I should help you too." He looks at Asougi earnestly. "Thank you, Asougi."

"It's a samurai's duty to protect helpless people." Asougi rubs his knuckles, already missing the sword by his side. Of course it has been confiscated. "It's not fair that you sit here with me."

"I think it is. We are friends." Naruhodou takes something out of his pocket and stretches it out toward Asougi. "Do you want some sweets?"

Asougi looks at the melted lump in his hands and shakes his head. Naruhodou begins to eat those sweets by himself.

"Do they do that often?" Asougi looks at the other side of the room, where the bullies are seated and are accordingly getting lectured by two adults as well. They grind their teeth but listen, by the looks of it. What else can they do …

"Sometimes. When I'm not careful." Naruhodou wipes his sticky hands on a handkerchief, chewing.

"Then why don't you fight, Naruhodou?" _You don't deserve to be treated like this, Naruhodou._

Naruhodou shrugs. "I'm not a samurai."

"You are!" Asougi jumps off his chair and takes Naruhodou's hand, looking him sternly into his eyes. "You are the best samurai there is, Naruhodou, just like me! I want you to fight back if something like that happens again, promise me!"

"Okay." Naruhodou nods and Asougi lets go of his hand.

It doesn't take long and Asougi's mother comes to fetch him. While Midori complains to his mother about the whole affair Asougi stands by and wonders why his fingers are gooey and sticking together but he can't think of a reason. His mother listens to Midori's words silently, nods from time to time but doesn't comment on the child-minder's report until Asougi and she walk out the day-care facility. Then she asks only one question: "Why did you do it?"

Asougi knows what she's referring to. "The others were attacking my friend. I had to."

"Good. I see that you understand, Karintou I won't tell you anything more than Midori-chan already told you, so we can rest easy, yes? I hope you had fun today."

"I did."

And while it seems that Asougi forgot about this episode in his later years: when he himself was an adult, he still sometimes catches himself thinking about black tall spiders around a sweetly smiling snowman packed with a woolly hat, scarf and jacket whenever it's snowing – much to his confusion.


End file.
